Technical Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to power management in a network of devices; and, more particularly, certain embodiments relate to reduced power consumption in a device through the management and release of non-requested services.
Description of Related Art
Devices within a home such as televisions, set top boxes (STBs), audio systems, appliances, and computers are frequently cited as materially significant consumers of electricity within a home. Cumulatively, the amount of energy wasted by such devices is significant, and may have a negative impact on the ability of a power grid to meet peak energy demands. By reducing the power consumption of devices that are typically plugged into power outlets in a home, a consumer may reduce his or her total electric usage, leading to reduced expenditures for electricity and lessening potential impacts on the environment associated with energy generation. At times, users within a home may not realize a device is still consuming meaningful amounts of power, even though the device has been switched to a standby or “off” power state. This is due, in part, to a tendency of manufacturers to design their respective products such that much of the circuitry (such as communication interfaces) in a device remains active even when a user may perceive the device to be off in order to provide for quick responses to unpredictable user input.
Previous approaches to saving power have focused on reducing the energy consumption of an individual device. Such approaches have yielded notable improvements in overall power consumption for the collective set of individual devices in a home. For example, device circuitry itself has improved over generations of products such that less power is needed to perform a given function. Likewise, some functionality of a device may be deactivated for periods of time so that the overall consumption of power is reduced. These types of techniques have focused on reducing the power consumption of an individual device without consideration of other devices.
There has also been a trend towards communicatively coupling devices within a home through various means of communication. Such means often include networking and direct connection technologies. Connectivity between devices can be used to share information, resources or content between devices. Over time, it has become expected that devices remain active so as to maintain connectivity and facilitate ready communication. This mirrors recent consumer behavior of expecting devices to always be in a connected state. Accordingly, device manufacturers are often presented with opposing requirements: reducing the amount of time a device is active to reduce power consumption, and increasing the amount of time a device is active to facilitate communication.